


After the Party

by Lefaym



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Kissing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-11
Updated: 2014-06-11
Packaged: 2018-02-04 07:52:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1771420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lefaym/pseuds/Lefaym
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor wants to avoid thinking, and Jack's best-ever stag party should help him with that.  But Jack, River, and the TARDIS have other plans...</p>
            </blockquote>





	After the Party

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sahiya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sahiya/gifts).



> This is another fic that I wrote for fandom_stocking in 2012, but only just got around to posting. Only 18 months late! (I blame the TARDIS.)
> 
> Thanks to lionessvalenti for the beta!

Normally, the Doctor would go to River at times like this; the lonely times, when he doesn’t have anyone travelling with him. It scares him, sometimes, how attached he’s become to her. And it scares him that she’s a little bit younger, and knows him a little bit less every time he sees her. One day, all too soon—

But no, he doesn’t want to think about that. That’s why he tells the TARDIS to take him to the New Everest Lunar Resort, July 18 2436: the date that will go down in history as the occasion of Jack’s best ever stag night. The Doctor has already met the group that Jack is marrying into, though that meeting won’t occur for another five years in their timeline. He’ll enjoy celebrating with this ragtag collection of bright and bold lost souls—the types that Jack always manages to draw to himself one way or another.

When the TARDIS materialises, the Doctor steps outside in his best party gear—a flashing bow-tie bought (well, scavenged) especially for the occasion, and a musical fez—and quickly realises that once again, the TARDIS has got it wrong. The party has obviously been over for hours. Hyper-streamers and empty bottles are strewn across the abandoned dance-floor. Abandoned, that is, by everyone except the good Captain, who stands in the middle of the room, a small smile playing about his lips.

“Doctor,” he says. “I thought you didn’t get my invitation.”

“It was a bit difficult to miss. Tell me, do you usually carve invitations into planets, these days?”

“Only if you’re special.” Jack grins and winks at him.

“Ah.” That’s rather nice, really. Of course, at that moment, his fez chooses to break out into a rather inappropriate rendition of _Ten Green Bottles_. The Doctor flings the offending item from his head and stomps on it. “There. That’s better,” he says, as the hat meets a surprisingly smoky end.

“I had help with the planet thing, if you must know,” says Jack.

“Really? Who—oh, of course.” River, naturally. It couldn’t be anyone else. “Was she well?”

“Very well. She misses you though.”

“River’s not the sort to pine.”

Jack snorts. “Definitely not. She is, however, very good at plotting revenge on Doctors who don’t turn up on agreed dates.”

“That wasn’t my fault!” The Doctor is sure that his face is all wide-eyed innocence. “There was this kraken overlord, and he—”

“Doctor, you have a _time machine_.”

“Yes, but—” The Doctor breaks off when he realises that Jack is grinning again. The insufferable man is teasing him.

“River did tell me to give you something though.”

“Really? Wha—” This time the Doctor is unable to finish because Jack has closed the distance between them, and has rather unceremoniously smashed their mouths together. Of course, because it’s Jack, even unceremonious smashing of lips is rather nice.

“There,” says Jack, pulling away. “How was that?”

“Um—er—” The Doctor thinks that he might actually be blushing. He still isn’t really used to this sort of thing. He thinks about what River would do in this situation. And then it comes to him.

The Doctor is rather gratified to find that he’s actually surprised Jack, by moving in for a second kiss. Not that it takes Jack long to recover. This time, he’s slower, more gentle, and the Doctor actually feels a sigh rising in his throat. Why did he run from this sort of thing again? It all seems so silly now. His old self, his last self, had been particularly silly; running from Jack because he was a constant. How ridiculous.

It takes the Doctor a little while to find his voice when they pull apart, but at least it’s not awkward this time. “I do hope your fiancées don’t mind this going on,” he says.

Jack waves a hand towards a camera in the corner of the hall. “They’re probably watching,” he says.

“Ah,” says the Doctor. “Good. I think.”

“Anyway,” Jack continues, “you’ll have to go to River for anything more than that. Much as I’d love to take things from here… I promised her that I’d send you on.”

It’s then that the Doctor notices that there’s something unusual about Jack’s smile today. It’s as flirtatious and toothy as ever, and yet—it’s peaceful, he realises. Jack really is happy here with these people he’s found. And the Doctor can sense, in that way that he sometimes can, that this happiness is going to last for at least a little while; a few decades of respite from eternity.

And somehow, Jack has managed to pass some of that peace onto the Doctor. He thinks about going to see River now, and he remembers only about how warm she is, and how clever, and how she frustrates him so beautifully. No time for worrying about what the future holds, when there’s all of the present and the past to explore.

“Thank you, Jack.”

Jack stands straight suddenly and salutes him. “My pleasure.”

The Doctor raises an arm in return and turns away, back to the TARDIS—who must have known what she was doing, when she brought him here late. Always taking care of him; just like River, just like Jack.

When he stands at the console again, the Doctor pulls a few levers just for show, and whispers, “To River now, my girl. Take me where I need to go.”


End file.
